SUPREME COURT.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1400, 13 August 1872, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

(Before His Honor Mr. Justice Johnston.) MONDAY, 12th AUGUST, 1872. Assault with Intent, The Grand Jury having found a true bill against William Shuker on both indictments, on the Court resuming he was placed in the box. There were a variety of counts in the in- | dictments, to all of which he pleaded • not guilty. The specific charge on : which he was first indicted was that he did, on the 20th June, about midnight, wound and ill-treat one Mary Ann Manchester, with intent to do grievous bodily harm. On the application of the prisoner, Mr Lee was assigned to him as counsel. Mary Ann Manchester, sworn, deposed : 1 am a hiugle woman, employed by Mr Haidy, of Gisborne, Poverty Bay, as a domestic servant. Mi" Hard} has a wife and two children. The plan A, pioduced, shows correctly the position of the rooms of the house. L have known the prisoner about fifteen months; he was orderly to Captain Porter, and lived about a mbe from Hardy's He i« a single man. I had not seen much of hiui ior the last eight months, but had previously seen him frequently at Sergeant Hallet's house. I remember the 20th June. Mrs Hardy, myself, and the two children, slept in the house that night. Mr Hardy had gone to Napier; he had been absent about two days. On the night of the 20th I was the last up in I he house, and went to bed at about II 15, after locking the front door. All ] the windows were clo-ed; but I do not know whether they were fastened. Mrs Hardy's bedroom was a front room; mine was a back room, adjoining. The children, aged about 4 and 3 years, slept in Mrs Hardy's room. I had not been long asleep when I was aroused by the children crying. Knowing they were unwell, I did not rise, but turned over in my bed, and faced the wall. Soon after, I felt fingers seize me by the throat, and at the same moment the bedclothes were pulled off me. I turned and saw a man kneeling on my bed. He had no boots on. The full moon was right opposite the window, which was only covered by a thin blind, so that the room was quite light. I called loudly for Mrs Hardy. I recognised the prisoner. (Part of the evidence at this point is scarcely suitable fur publication ) I cried, "Shuker, for Go J's sake, what are you doing]" or words to that effect. He seized me by the throat vith both hand*, and tried to choke me, stopping my breath for a time and making my eyes ache. I struggled, and he then stooped over the .side of the bed, still holding my throat with his left hand, and picked up some heavy instrument, with which he struck me on the forehead. I managed to sit up, and he struck me a second blow on the head. 1 rose to my knees, and turned my back to him, and he struck me a third time on the head I put up my left hand, upon which I received the next blow, which broke three of my fingers, and otherwise injured my hand, 1 fell one more blow on my right arm. I then fell back ou the

bed, and became unconscious for a time. When I came to myself, the children were still crying in Mrs HarJy's room. I went in, and found she was not in a state to have rendered me any assistance. I ran at once to Constable O'Donoghue's, and gave him the information. I have been unable to work during the six weeks since the assault took place. In answer to his Honor, the witness added that the prisoner did not succeed in accomplishing his vile purpose, neither during the desperate struggle described, nor during the period of witness's unconsciousness. Further evidence was about to be called, when Mr Lee intimated that the prisoner desired to withdraw his plea, and plead guilty. His Honor did not think he would allow this to be done. If the prisoner had any idea that it would tend to reduce his punishment, he had better banish such an idea, from his mind. The prisoner intimated that he had no such idea, and the plea was allowed. The prisoner declined to say anything in arrest of judgment. His Honor then, addressing the prisoner, said he had admitted himself to be guilty of one of the most unmanly and wicked atrocities of which he had ever known a man convicted, after thirty years' experience in Courts of Justice. Of the hundreds of men who had suffered the penalty of death for their crimes, few were more deserving of the extreme penalty than the prisoner now before him. He had entered that house at midnight, eviden h prepared to go any lengrhs to satisfy hi" brutal lust, and it was only by the great mercy of God that his victims had survived the effects of their injuries. The prisoner had gone to the room of the young woman who had been examined, and treated her as no man deserving of the name had ever treated a woman. It was a source of great satisfaction to the Court to hear from her own lips that he did not succeed in his foul purpose. He would be guilty of a gross dereilciion of his duty as a judge, if he did not in this ease award the maximum penalty. He sentenced the prisoner to penal servitude for life. Several persons in Court, began to exhibit their approval by stamping upon the floor ; but his Honor sternly checked the unseemly demonstration, ordering the officers of the Court to take into custody the first man they observed acting in this manner. Rape. The Grand Jury found a true bill against Richard Wright for this offence upon a child of tender years, named Margaret Cameron. They also found a true bill on certain counts in which the offence was described as of a less serious kind. The particulars were quite sufficiently reported in our columns last May. The medical evidence not fully supporting the more serious charge, the jury-round a verdict of not guilty. The prisoner was then remanded till to-day, to be tried upon the other counts in the indictment. Felony. Stephen Hunt was charged that, l>eing a member of a certain co-partner-ship, he did steal and embezzle ,£IOO, the property of the said co-partnership. The particulars ot this case will still be fresh in the memory of our readers. A point was raised as to the efficiency of the statute under which the case was brought. Mr Justice Richmond, in a late decision, held, that owing to a delect in the statute, it was of no effect, and his Honor held the same view, and signified his intention, if the jury returned a verdict of guilty, of reserving the case for the Court of Appeal. In the examination of Cation, the defrauded partner 4 by Mr Lascelles, it appeared, however, that the witness had never made a formal demand, for his share of the money. This proved fatal tothec.ise; Mr Lee (for the prosecution) adduced no further evidence, and the prisoner was discharged—his Honor remarking that Catton was not thus debarred from remedy by civil process True Bills. The Grand Jury found true Mils against all the remaining prisoners except the man Geary, charged with arson, who was discharged.

Assault. Erueti Pufci was placed at the bar,, charged with having on the 24th May, at West Clive, assaulted John Allauach,, with intent to do grievous bodily harm. The prisoner, who pleaded not guilty,, was defended by Mr Lascelles. Theprisoner challenged four of the jurymen, who were called The,-evidence taken for the prosecution was the same as in the Resident Magistrate's Court a short time since. It will be remembered that while the evidence of the assault was plain and undisputed, the prisoner was identified by only one witness, who recognized him in the dusk of the evening, at a distance of a chain. Evidence for the defence was now adduced, which not only made the identity of the prisoner very doubtful, but went far to establish that he could not have been the man who committed the assault. His Honor having carefully summed up, the jury found the prisoner not guilty. The Court then (8 p.m ) adjourned. TUESDAY, 13th AUGUST. His Honor took his seat at 10 a.n»v In answer to an applicatioL by Mr Lee his Honor declined to allow the costs of the ca«e Oatton v. Hunt to be borne by the State. Indecent Assault. Richard Wright was charged with this offence upon a child named Margaret Cameron. The prisoner pleaded not guilty, and evidence was taken the same as on a previon* occasion. Theprisoner's defence in the Resident Magistrate's Court was also read, in which,. to avoid the serious charge of rape, an indecent assault was fully admitted. The prisoner then made his own statement to the jury, which differed in several respects from that made by him in the Resident Magistrate's Court. The jury, without any hesitation,, found the prisoner guilty. Mr Inspector Scully, in answer to his Honor, said that the prisoner had not been more than twelve months in the Province, and that little was known of him. His Honor addressing the prisoner, said he should like to export him to some country inhabited by savages and wild animals- He then read an extract from the law relating to such oflenees > which provides that pease>ns convicted of sr.ch offences may, in addition to imprisonment and hard labor, be privately whipped. Gray as the prisoner's hairs were, he had shown himself a fit subject for the cat-of-nine-tails. It was evident that he had sought to gratify his vile passions upon two little children, and this fact, coupled with bis impudent and nasty defence, rendered him loathsome. —Sentence : Two years imprisonment, with hard labor. Felony. James Biadshaw was then placed hi the box, charged with stealing, on the 9th February, one gold watch and chain : and one waistcoat, the property of D. Trone. The principal evidence against the pn'soner was, as before, that of Thomas Green, who deposed to having acted the part of a kind oi amateur detective, and having obtained the watch from the prisoner, hid it ia a hole in the bush for three weeks, without letting the true owner knov it was in his possession. In defence, the prisoner maintained that the watch hud never been in his possession at all, and that Green was the thief. In support of this statement lie called Mary M'Dermott, a married woman, who deposed that Green made her an offer of the stolen watch. His Honor having summed up, the jury retired, and the Conrt adjourned from 1 to 1.3 Q p.m. On the Couit resuming, the jury found a verdict of not guilty. His Honor said the prisoner bad a very narrow escape; but the evidence having been of so doubtful a character* the jury did quite right in giving «» prisoner the benefit of the doubt. [Left sitting.}